By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — The city’s Motorcycle Technical Review Committee has wrapped up its site plan approval process for Bike Week 2004 having considered 57 requests, which is up slightly from last year.

Meanwhile, with Bike Week less than a month away — the rally takes place from June 12-20 — the number of vendor permits is running apace to last year’s levels, according to the city Licensing Department.

The MTRC on Thursday considered and approved 27 applications of property owners who want to have their property used for temporary parking, camp sites or vending during Bike Week.

The 57 applications the committee considered in 2004 is up from 54 in 2003 and may rise yet again as the City Council has agreed to hear a site plan request at its May 24 from an applicant who failed to meet the filing deadline for the MTRC’s May 13 meeting.

The MTRC this year granted permission for beer tents at the Weirs Beach Lobster Pound, the Broken Spoke Saloon, the Winnipesaukee Marketplace, Funspot and for the Weirs Beach Drive-In.

All of the above now also need permission from the New Hampshire State Liquor Commission to be able to extend alcohol service to the beer tents.

The Drive-In does not presently have a liquor license, said Planning Department staff, and must first secure it before asking the NHSLC to allow the extension of liquor service.

While most of the properties for which the MTRC does site plan reviews are located in The Weirs, some are quite distant from Bike Week’s epicenter.

Among new applications that the MTRC approved on Thursday were for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Irving Mainway, both on Union Avenue, to have vendor space during the nine-day long Bike Week and for a property owner on Meredith Center Road to be able to operate a temporary campground for recreational vehicles and tents.

Assistant Tax Collector Kerri Parker, who processes the Bike Week vending permits for the Licensing Board, said that as of Friday afternoon she had received 70 vendor applications, of which the board has acted on four.

By this same time last year, the Licensing Board had approved 77 vending permits, and overall, the city granted approximately 340 vending licenses for Bike Week 2003, she said.

Although the numbers of vending permits appears to be slightly down this year, Parker said they continue to come in "steadily."

" I’m getting a couple a day," she said.

Seeing "a little bit of both" of new applicants and renewals, Parker expects that the final tally for Bike Week 2004 will be similar to last year’s.

"I think we’re in the same ball park," Parker said.